Voyageur Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (TSX.V: VM) (OTC Pink: VYYRF) has reported significant progress in its proprietary Mueller iodine extraction process, achieving 99.8% iodine purity and over 90% overall recovery in laboratory tests using real oilfield brine. The company is now preparing for field pilot testing, a critical step toward establishing a domestic iodine supply for the North American radiology contrast media market.
The Mueller process is designed to recover high-purity iodine from iodine-rich oilfield brine, offering oil and gas producers and midstream water operators a new revenue stream from produced water. Voyageur has set up a lab and fabrication site in Houston, Texas, where it has demonstrated the process under controlled conditions, generating clean brine suitable for disposal or reinjection, consistent with zero-liquid-discharge objectives. The company has built a mobile field-capable pilot unit sized to treat up to 80,000 liters per day, with field testing scheduled to begin in the coming weeks and operations planned for September 2026.
Key laboratory achievements include continuous operation using real oilfield brine, validation of process parameters for scale-up, and completion of a preliminary design basis for a 200 metric ton per year plant. The company has also completed techno-economic and environmental validation, supporting a low-cost OPEX and environmental profile. The pilot unit's field testing is expected to provide operating data under real-world conditions, supporting the design for modular, relocatable production units that can be deployed at multiple saltwater disposal sites.
Voyageur's strategy is to become the first company to economically extract iodine from produced brine, a resource that is currently largely untapped. Billions of barrels of produced water are handled and disposed of annually at significant cost, with only a small fraction of the iodine recovered. The company aims to build what it believes will be the first economically profitable, field-proven iodine extraction process, contributing to the industry's broader effort toward brine valorization.
Brent Willis, President and CEO of Voyageur, emphasized the importance of the milestone: “Achieving 99.8% purity and greater than 90% recovery in laboratory testing using real oilfield brine provides meaningful technical validation as we prepare for field pilot operations. This work supports our broader strategy of building a secure, vertically integrated supply chain for radiology drugs.”
The company plans to develop iodine production capacity of up to 1,000 tonnes per year to support its future iodine-based contrast pharmaceutical production. Engineering efforts are progressing to advance from laboratory validation to field demonstration and commercial-scale design, including finalizing process systems for iodine polishing, prilling, and packaging. Subsequent phases will move through front-end loading stages to refine cost estimates and support commercial deployment planning.
The Mueller process is a key component of Voyageur's vertically integrated strategy, which aims to improve supply-chain security, reduce reliance on imported raw materials, and lower operating costs for contrast media production. The company is also developing its Frances Creek barium project and plans for manufacturing capabilities, positioning itself across key parts of the medical imaging contrast media value chain.
Voyageur will provide further updates as field testing begins and additional technical milestones are achieved.
